This article examines the development of medical knowledge and practice with regard to sickness in old age in the early years of the National Health Service. It suggests that the creation of a speciality of geriatrics was inspired by the need to prevent hospital beds being blocked by long-stay patients. Thus, the efficient use of hospital provision required the diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of elderly patients. The publication of medical texts on sickness in old age, provided the basis for a more interventionist approach to the care of sick, elderly people, but the development of geriatrics as a separate speciality was hindered by professional disputes over administrative responsibility, funding, private practice, and medical training. One key area of debate was whether sickness in old age was primarily a social rather than a medical problem. This needs to be considered with regard to the relationship between the hospital and the local community and the article examines the contribution of social and medical surveys of elderly people at home to the discourse on sickness and old age.
The incidence of yaws in 533 pygmies from the Central African Republic was surveyed. It appeared that there is still an impressive incidence of yaws in pygmy children who have poor hygiene. Laboratory investigations showed that the Treponema pallidum hemagglutination assay is often negative during the first stage of the disease, while the fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption test is positive and, thus, more sensitive.
This article examines the emigration of orphan and deserted children from Bristol to Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This emigration was organised and financed by the local Boards of Guardians and, as such, raises important questions about the way in which state agencies cared for dependent children. The emigration of Poor Law children is explored in relation to debates about childcare, poverty, racial degeneration and imperialism. Of particular interest is the role played by women in promoting child emigration and the article considers the women's contribution to discourse and practice, both locally and nationally. The dynamics of emigration are analysed by using both British and Canadian sources and the tensions associated with pauper emigration are examined in some detail.
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